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Technology and globalization are forcing everyone to be more
entrepreneurial, said LinkedIn
Co-founder Reid Hoffman and entrepreneur Ben Casnocha at the
event Secrets from Silicon
Valley. Hosted by CreativeLIVE, the two-day series featured
free, live workshops about how to run a successful business.

Hoffman and Casnocha, co-authors of popular book The Start-Up
of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform
Your Career (Crown Business, 2012), spoke on Friday about
how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs build amazing companies amid
rapid economic change.

Here are their tips for finding business success in a
still-uncertain economy:

1. Find the intersection of your strengths and
aspirations and market realities.

When starting up, the standard advice is often to play to your
strengths, follow your passion and capitalize on market needs.
However, "thinking about any one of those in isolation is wildly
insufficient," said Casnocha. Instead, he says to look at how
those three intersect and integrate them into your business plan.

The plan should map out the next couple years, but it's not set
in stone. Over time, your passions can change, your strengths
will likely improve and the market will change, so you'll need to
reevaluate as you go, Hoffman said.

2. Establish a small group of allies and a large network
of acquaintances.

Social and professional networks connect us with acquaintances
across geographies and professions, providing a valuable source
of diverse information. However, it is also important to build a
small network of emotionally rich and collaborative
relationships, said Hoffman. "It's critical to think about
growing networks, but you can do it in a very human way," he
said.

Early on in their friendship, Hoffman and Zynga Founder Mark
Pincus had an explicit conversation about how they were going to
help each other. "It isn't a trading pact; it's an expression of
alliance," Hoffman said. Having close allies is equally, if not
more, important to your future success as having a large group of
loose professional ties.

3. Don't risk more than you can afford to lose.

There is a common misconception that all entrepreneurs are "crazy
risk-takers," said Casnocha. However, he said there is a way to
take intelligent risks in times of uncertainty or with limited
information.

Assess risks by considering the worst possible outcome of your
decision, Casnocha advised. Then ask yourself: if that happened,
could you survive it? If the answer is yes, be open to taking the
risk, he said. If it's no, you may want to reconsider. "If I feel
like the worst-case scenario is my company goes under, I go
bankrupt and my reputation is destroyed, then I'm really weary of
that risk," he said.